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CNL Brass is a community band, formed in 1973. It rehearses at Cardiff, a suburb of the City of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, under the baton of Musical Director, Bruce Rowlatt.

With its members ranging in age from 17 to 87 years, the band supports community events, marching in festival parades and entertaining with concert performances.

It led the Wallsend Winter Fair Parade from its inception in1985 until 2012 and provided a concert program after the Parade to entertain those in attendance. It is a popular Winter Fair. Wallsend is a suburb of Newcastle. The band continued to play in the Parade until 2015, after which its involvement ceased.

It also entertains developmentally disabled members of the community, supporting in particular, an organization known as Crossroads, which organises weekly entertainment for its disabled members. CNL Brass has supported Crossroads annually since 1976, playing two concert programs each year.

CNL Brass provided the entertainment for another volunteer organization called Head Start in October 2010, as its members ended a fundraising walk. Head Start provides support for persons that have suffered brain injuries, mainly as a result of accidents.

CNL Brass has a major annual commitment to ANZAC Day. It continues to support Pelican Flat RSL Sub-Branch at its Dawn Service, as it has done since 1978. It supported Belmont RSL Sub-Branch, provided music for the March and Service and entertained with a Concert after the Service from 1978 until 2012.
In 2013, the band supported Stockton RSL Sub Branch for its March and Service and entertained with a Concert at Stockton RSL and Citizens Club after the Service. It will continue to support Stockton RSL Sub Branch in future years.

It has been a regular participant in the Hunter Regional Band Association’s annual Bands in the Park entertainment day for more than twenty five years. The annual event was held in Newcastle’s King Edward Park each year until 2015. It was transferred to Speers point Park in the City of Lake Macquarie in 2016. It is non-competitive and free for the community to attend. Eight to ten bands participate in the event.

The band has presented concert programs in support of community radio station 2NURfm 103.7 in its fundraising efforts. The Secretary of the band and Horn player, Geoff McGregor, presents a weekly thirty-minute program— Brass Encounters—on the station, featuring the best in Brass Band Music, past and present.

CNL Brass also presents concerts in its own right, inviting guest artists and other music groups to perform with the band. Since 2013 the Concerts have been held at Lake Macquarie Centre of Performing Arts, Warners Bay. In both 2015 and 2016 the band presented four Concerts and will do so again in 2017.